As we begin to explore this story of humankind outside the Garden of Eden, we like Cain should be uncomfortable with our first encounter being fratricide. Yet if we are honest with ourselves, we need to admit that we walk…
Author: Rabbi Paul
Sukkot – Finding Shelter in a Transient World
Sukkot recalls that freedom came as the result of pitching tents over 1 4,600 days and honors the 43,000 meals prepared in the dessert. But more importantly Sukkot reminds us that God is everywhere and undermines the idolatry of rootedness.…
Ki Tavo – Lessons From The Storm
The events of the past years have caused me to think a lot about the fragility of our world. The events of the past several weeks have caused me to feel even more distressed about the fragility of life itself.…
Ki Tetse – Making Sense of the “Texts of Terror”
If we are to be perfectly honest, much of the law codes reorganized and restated in the book of Devarim seem oddly archaic, highly impractical, and at times, even disturbingly unethical! This week’s parashah, Ki Teitse is chocked full of…
The Fourth Word
For millennia, the historical church has read and studied the “last words” of Yeshua’s crucifixion during lent and in preparation for the Easter Holy week. But I think this tradition has a very special and unique value for Messianic Jews…
Eikev – What Are You Willing to Live for?
The Philosopher Socrates declared, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Sigmund Freud said the same in his own proprietary language, “Where id is, let ego be.” Most people only go through the motions daily, living out a pale imitation of…
Korach – You Say You Want a Revolution
Do you ever have a really bad day, when it seems like everyone and everything is working against you? Moses sure did. In fact it must have seemed to him like he had fourteen thousand and six hundred days like…
Shelach Lecha – Monsters, Giants and Other Formidable Obstacles
In the spring of 2002 I went to an art exhibit that was featuring a grouping of pictures painted by a good friend who was beginning the process of leaving the safety of a career as a commercial artist and…
Nasso – Bless is More
Listen to an audio version… This week’s parasha contains one of only two prescribed blessings in all of Torah, the Birkat Kohanim. This blessing is so familiar to us, it is part of the morning shacharit, and is traditionally chanted…
Shavuos all Over Again
Yankee Hall of Famer Yogi Berra was renown for his unique and often comical manner of turning a phrase. One phrase that has become part of the American lexical tradition is “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” Déjà vu…